Jason O'Halloran secured a fantastic result at round nine of the Fuchs-Silkolene British Supersport Championship at Cadwell Park this weekend. O'Halloran was locked in an exciting battle for second position with James Westmoreland, Ben Wilson, Ian Hutchinson and Glen Richards, eventually gaining a stunning fourth place.
Jason has been running strongly all weekend on the East Coast Racing Yamaha in both the wet and the dry conditions and was ready for every eventuality. Having his best qualifying position on the Yamaha of eighth place the young Australian was eager to gain a good start and run with the front runners.
He got the good start that he needed and was lying in seventh place after the opening lap, two of the front runners crashed early on in the race, fellow Australian Billy McConnell and Graeme Gowland allowing Jason to gain two places. He was then locked in a 12 lap scrap up until the race was red flagged on lap 14 leaving Jason in a good fourth place. However, the race could have gone any way in the final two laps but after it was cut short he had to settle for fourth.
Commenting he said "It was a great race I'm gutted to have not been able to put it on the podium as this is my main sponsors' Arkpro, Lucas Machinery and AKP, local round and I would have liked to have stuck it on the podium for them all, so close! At least now we are running with the front runners and the chance of a top three result is getting nearer and nearer, I have three rounds left to try and get it sorted! The Yamaha worked mega once again and Spider and GP James pulled out all the stops to make sure that everything ran smoothly and it did. The race was so close and really good fun having the battle out there with the boys and I really want to get in that top three at one of the last rounds to say thanks to everyone that's worked so hard."
His team-mate Pat McDougall struggled throughout the weekend at a track he is not overly comfortable at and finished the race as sixth cup rider but still leads the Supersport Cup by 21 points from Max Hunt . He said "I'm a bit gutted with how the weekend went and I've struggled here all weekend, it's not my favourite track and I've never really gelled with it but it wasn't through lack of trying. We had set up problems throughout the sessions and never really found the direction that we needed to be going in. I just want to move on from here and get my head down for the final three rounds, roll on Croft I say."
Team Manager Phil Reed said "It's been a mixed weekend for the boys, Jason's result was once again fantastic and we're really pleased for him. He's been running a good pace all weekend and proved in the race he could fight it out at the front. We know the podium is there we just have to find it, they have worked exceptionally hard all weekend and it's another great result for the team. Pat has always been a little weary at Cadwell and despite the changes we made he was still struggling. However he is still leading the Cup Championship so that's a good thing and we're looking forward to some good results in the closing rounds of the series."
